A west London council is refusing to provide housing for a young mother despite making “a catalogue of errors” which resulted in her being left homeless and sofa surfing while pregnant, an Ombudsman has revealed.
Hounslow council was told to offer the woman and her baby the next available two-bedroom property that meets her needs after an investigation by the Local Government Ombudsman found its failures meant she missed out on a number of secure tenancies.
But the town hall has refused. Instead it has offered her £3,750 in compensation to recognise “the time she spent in unsuitable accommodation outside the borough and the distress and frustration caused by its failings”.
Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, Amerdeep Somal said on Thursday: “Hounslow council has left a vulnerable mother and her child without the security of knowing where she would call home at a particularly desperate time of her life.
“As a young pregnant person she has been forced to sofa surf despite clear evidence the council owed her a duty.
“All this has had a significant effect on her. She moved into one-bedroom shared accommodation shortly before she gave birth, and remains there to this day.
“All the evidence shows that if Hounslow had acted correctly, the woman would have had the safety of a social tenancy when her child was born.”
The woman first approached the council in May 2022 after her relationship with her parents broke down and she began sofa surfing with friends, the Ombudsman report said.
Hounslow then took more than a year and a half (77 weeks) too long to assess her application.
She was then given a string of incorrect information, the investigation found. This included the council telling her that she was on the local authority’s top Band 0 list for a home, despite this banding not existing .
She was told that applying as homeless would reduce her chances of getting secure housing.
The Ombudsman found that this was done so the town hall could avoid its legal duties to the woman as a homeless person.
She was not allocated a housing officer and the council failed to respond to numerous requests for information.
When the young mother moved to a shared one bedroom home in another borough she was also told that moving out of an area would not affect her application, despite this then disqualifying her from its housing register.
She was then unable to apply for social housing in her new borough because she has not lived there long enough.
The Ombudsman’s investigation revealed that had Hounslow council assessed the woman’s homelessness application when it should have done, it would have found she was “eligible, homeless, and in priority need”.
This means it should have provided her with interim accommodation immediately, but it did not.
If it had considered her application in time, she would have been able to join the housing register. Instead she missed out on several properties offered to people who applied after her, the Ombudsman said.
Ms Somal called on Hounslow councillors to “do the right thing” and provide the woman with a home.
She added: “I am disappointed that, by rejecting my recommendation to offer her the next suitable property it has available, the council is failing to fully accept the gravity its incorrect advice and practice has had on this woman and her child.
“I now call on local councillors in Hounslow to do the right thing and accept the recommendation I have made to house her as soon as possible.”
Councillor Sue Sampson, Cabinet Member for Housing Management and Homelessness, said: “"We maintain that at all times in this case we acted legally and in line with housing policy.
“During the period in question [the mother] secured her own accommodation outside the borough. Our priority and responsibility around housing need is for people residing in Hounslow who cannot house themselves.
“We cannot accept all the Ombudsman’s recommendations in this case. The Council does not accept that there is evidence that a homelessness application would have been successful, even had one been made.
“Homelessness applications are subject to rigorous assessment to ensure limited resources are allocated to those most in need.”
